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know on what side to apprehend danger, as the sound seemed to him to proceed from the ground, and to enclose a circle, of which he and his companions stood in the centre.

It is by custom or experience, that we learn to distinguish the state of things, and, in some measure also, their nature, by means of their sound. It is thus that we learn, that one noise is in a contiguous room, that another is above our heads, and another is in the street. And what seems to be an evidence of this is, that when we are in a strange place, after all our experience, we very frequently find ourselves mistaken in these respects.

If a man born deaf were suddenly made to hear, he would probably consider his first sensations of sound as originating wholly within himself. But in process of time we learn not only to refer the origin of sounds to a position above or below, to the right or left; but to connect each particular sound with a particular external cause, referring one to a bell as its appropriate external cause, another to a flute, another to a trumpet.

§. 162. Application of these views to the art of ventriloquism.

We are naturally led to make a few remarks here in explanation of VENTRILOQUISM, a well known art, by which persons can so modify their voice, as to make it appear to their audience to proceed from different objects, distances, and directions. The great requisite on the part of the ventriloquist is to be able to mimic sounds; and he will be likely to succeed nearly in proportion to his skill in this particular. The secret then of his acoustic deceptions, supposing him to be capable of exact imitation, will be sufficiently understood by referring to the statement maintained in the preceding section, viz. That previous to experience, we are unable to refer sounds to any particular external cause.

The sound itself never gives us any direct and immediate indication of the place, distance, or direction of the sonorous body. It is only by experience, it is only

by the association of place with sound, that the latter becomes an indication of the former. Now supposing the ventriloquist to possess a delicate ear, which is implied in his ability to mimic sounds, he soon learns by careful observation the difference, which change of place causes in the same sound. Having in this way ascertained the particular modulation of sound, which, in accordance with the experience of men and the associations they have formed, are appropriate to any particular distances, direction, or object, it is evident, whenever he exactly or very nearly imitates such modulations, that the sounds must appear to his audience to come from such distance, object, or direction.

One part of the art, however, consists in controlling the attention of persons present, and in directing that attention to some particular place by a remark, motion, or some other method. If, for instance, the sound is to come from under a tumbler or hat, the performer finds it important to have their attention directed to that particular object, which affords an opportunity for the exercise of all those associations, which they have formed with any sound coming from a very confined place. All, then, that remains for him to do, is, to give his voice a dull modulation and on a low key, which we know from our experience to be the character of confined sounds. Then there seems to be a voice speaking under a tumbler or hat; and if any person should either intentionally or unintentionally, lift these articles up, the ventriloquist immediately utters himself more freely like a person who had been very much confined, on being re-admitted into the free and open air. It is also necessary, when his face is towards his auditors, that he should make use chiefly of the muscles of the throat; an outward and visible moving of the lips would much weaken the deception.

§. 163. Uses of hearing and its connection with oral language.

Although, as in the cases just mentioned, the artifices of men may sometimes impose upon this organ and lead its decisions astray, it is one, in the ordinary calls for its

exercise, of exceeding value. One of the distinguished benefits of the sense of hearing is, that, in consequence of it, we are enabled to hold intercourse with each other by means of spoken language, without which the advancement of the human mind must have inevitably been very limited. It is by means of speech, that we express our feelings to the little company of our neighbours and our own family; and without it this pleasant and cheering intercourse must be almost entirely suspended. Not limited in its beneficial results to families and neighbourhoods, it has been made the medium of the transmission of thought from age to age, from generation to generation. So that in one age has been concentrated the result of all the researches, the combination of the wisdom of all the preceding.

"There is without all doubt," it has been observed, "a chain of the thoughts of human kind, from the origin of the world down to the moment at which we exist, a chain not less universal than that of the generation of every being, that lives. Ages have exerted their influence on ages; nations on nations; truths on errours; errours on truths."

Whether oral language was an original invention of man, or whether in the first instance it was a power bestowed upon him by his Creator and coeval with the human race, the ear must in either case have been the primary recipient.-The faculty of speech so necessary and so beneficial could not have existed, either by invention or by communication, without the sense of hearing. And hence it happens, that all those, who are born deaf, are without speech. Their inability to speak is not in general the result of a defect in the organs of speech, but because they cannot hear others, and thus imitate the sounds they utter.

CHAPTER FIFTH.

THE SENSE OF TOUCH.

§. 164. Of the sense of touch and the sensations in general.

We are next to consider the sense of TOUCH. The principal organ of this sense is the hand, although it is not limited to that part of our frame, but is diffused over the whole body. The hand principally arrests our attention as the organ of this sense, because being furnished with various articulations, it is easily moveable by the muscles, and can readily adopt itself to the various changes of form in the objects, to which it is applied.

The senses, which have hitherto been examined, are more simple and uniform in their results than that of the touch. By the ear we merely possess that sensation, which we denominate hearing; we have the knowledge of sounds, and that is all. By the palate we acquire a knowledge of tastes, and by the sense of smelling we become acquainted with the odours of bodies. The knowledge, which is directly acquired by all these senses, is límited to the qualities, which have been mentioned. By the sense of touch, on the contrary, we become acquainted not with one merely, but with a variety of qualities, such as the following, heat and cold, hardness and softness, roughness and smoothness, figure, solidity or resistance, extension, and perhaps motion; and in particular it gives occasion for the origin of the antecedent and more general notion of externality.

§. 165. The idea of externality or outness suggested by the sense of touch.

If man were possessed of the sense of smell alone, it would be found, that the earliest elements of his knowledge consisted exclusively in sensations of odours. According however as these sensations were agreeable or disagreeable, he would acquire the additional ideas of pleasure and pain. And having experienced pleasure and pain, we may suppose, that this would subsequently give rise to the notions of desire and aversion. But if he had no other sense, all these feelings. would seem to him to be internal, to be mere emanations from the soul itself; and he would be incapable of referring them to an external cause.

If he were possessed of the sense of hearing alone, the result would be similar; his existence would then seem to consist of harmony, as in the other case it would be made up of fragrance; nor indeed by the aid of merely both these senses combined, would he be able to form an idea of externality or outness.

But this idea is a most important one; it is the connecting thought, which introduces us to an acquaintance with a new form of existence, different from that interiour existence, which we variously call by the names, spirit, mind, or soul. This first idea arises in the mind by means

of the sense of touch.

All the senses, not excluding the smell and the taste, which are the least important in a mere intellectual point of view, have their share in bringing the mind into action; they are the primitive sources of thought and of emotion. The mind becomes, in consequence of the aids of the other senses, (supposing ourselves to be as yet without the sense of touch, or at least as not having applied it to any body by means of a muscular effort,) full of activity and fruitfulness, although its acts are at first wholly internal. It compares, abstracts, reasons, chooses, wills; and meeting with no obstacle, it and a source of pleasure. But

finds every thing easy, after a time it chooses..

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